UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE - 2019/20 SEASON MATCH PRESS KITS Stadio Olimpico - Rome Thursday 12 December 2019 21.00CET (21.00 local time) AS Roma Group J - Matchday 6 Wolfsberger AC Last updated 07/08/2020 19:23CET Previous meetings 2 Match background 3 Team facts 5 Squad list 7 Fixtures and results 10 Match-by-match lineups 13 Match officials 15 Legend 16 1 AS Roma - Wolfsberger AC Thursday 12 December 2019 - 21.00CET (21.00 local time) Match press kit Stadio Olimpico, Rome Previous meetings Head to Head UEFA Europa League Date Stage Match Result Venue Goalscorers Liendl 51; Spinazzola 03/10/2019 GS Wolfsberger AC - AS Roma 1-1 Graz 27 Home Away Final Total Pld W D L Pld W D L Pld W D L Pld W D L GF GA AS Roma 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 Wolfsberger AC 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 AS Roma - Record versus clubs from opponents' country UEFA Europa League Date Stage Match Result Venue Goalscorers Kayode 2, A. Grünwald 89; Džeko 03/11/2016 GS FK Austria Wien - AS Roma 2-4 Vienna 5, 65, De Rossi 18, Nainggolan 78 El Shaarawy 19, 34, Florenzi 69; 20/10/2016 GS AS Roma - FK Austria Wien 3-3 Rome Holzhauser 16, Prokop 82, Kayode 84 UEFA Cup Date Stage Match Result Venue Goalscorers 1-0 30/09/1992 R1 AS Roma - FC Wacker Innsbruck Rome Hässler 50 agg: 5-1 Baur 34; Giannini 16, 16/09/1992 R1 FC Wacker Innsbruck - AS Roma 1-4 Innsbruck 41, Caniggia 20, Muzzi 71 Wolfsberger AC - Record versus clubs from opponents' country Wolfsberger AC have not played against a club from their opponents' country Home Away Final Total Pld W D L Pld W D L Pld W D L Pld W D L GF GA AS Roma 2 1 1 0 3 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 5 3 2 0 13 7 Wolfsberger AC 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 2 AS Roma - Wolfsberger AC Thursday 12 December 2019 - 21.00CET (21.00 local time) Match press kit Stadio Olimpico, Rome Match background Roma have lifted themselves into a promising position in Group J and should be confident of clinching a place in the UEFA Europa League knockout phase as they host a Wolfsberg side who have lost their last three matches and can no longer reach the round of 32. • Having conceded added-time goals in successive games against Borussia Mönchengladbach to draw at home (1-1) and lose away (1-2), Roma were up against it as they travelled to Turkey on Matchday 5, but a dominant 3-0 win against İstanbul Başakşehirspor, the team they also beat 4-0 in the Stadio Olimpico on Matchday 1, has reinvigorated their hopes of further progress, putting them level on points with Mönchengladbach and one ahead of the team from Turkey. Group stage debutants Wolfsberg, however, have failed to build on an excellent start, losing without scoring in each of their last three matches to drop out of contention. • A win or a draw against Wolfsberg will seal Roma's qualification, though they can afford to lose and still go through if İstanbul Başakşehir fail to win the group's other final fixture away to Mönchengladbach. If Roma win and the German side do not, the Giallorossi will top the group. Previous meetings • Wolfsberg's first UEFA encounter against an Italian club had a positive outcome as they followed up their remarkable opening 4-0 win in Mönchengladbach with a 1-1 draw at home to Roma, Michael Liendl equalising after Leonardo Spinazzola had given the Serie A side the lead. • Roma are undefeated in their five matches against Austrian opposition, winning one and drawing one of the two home games. The draw came against Austria Wien in the 2016/17 UEFA Europa League group stage, the Viennese visitors scoring twice late on to make the final score 3-3 after Alessandro Florenzi had put Roma 3-1 ahead. Form guide Roma • Roma finished sixth in last season's Serie A, missing out on UEFA Champions League qualification for the first time in six years. They were defeated 4-3 on aggregate after extra time by Porto in the 2018/19 round of 16 having reached the previous season's semi-finals. • This is the Giallorossi's fifth participation in the UEFA Europa League proper but only their third appearance in the group stage. They have won their group on both previous occasions, in 2009/10 and 2016/17, reaching the round of 16 in the latter campaign. • Roma's 14-game unbeaten run in the UEFA Europa League group stage (W8 D6) came to a halt with Mönchengladbach's last-gasp winner on Matchday 4, but the Serie A side remain unbeaten in eight such fixtures at the Stadio Olimpico (W6 D2). A 0-2 defeat against holders Real Madrid in last season's UEFA Champions League is the only one of their last 13 European fixtures in the Italian capital that they have lost, winning ten. Wolfsberg • Promoted to the Austrian top flight for the first time in 2012, Wolfsberg claimed their highest ever Bundesliga finish in 2018/19, taking third place behind champions Salzburg and runners-up LASK. • The club's only previous European campaign, in 2015/16, ended with a 6-0 aggregate defeat by Borussia Dortmund in the UEFA Europa League third qualifying round, though they had been victorious in both legs of their inaugural tie a round earlier, beating Shakhtyor Soligorsk of Belarus 1-0 away and 2-0 at home. • Wolfsberg's overall European record is now W3 D1 L5; outside Austria it is W2 L2. Links and trivia • Roma's Aleksandar Kolarov and Wolfsberg's Nemanja Rnić are both Serbian internationals, though the latter’s third and last appearance, in March 2008, came two months before the former won the first of his 90 caps. • Roma's Henrikh Mkhitaryan played for Dortmund against Wolfsberg in both legs of that 2015/16 UEFA Europa League qualifier, bagging a 13-minute hat-trick to complete the scoring in the second leg. • Both clubs' official crests feature the image of a wolf. • Wolfsberg are one of six clubs appearing in the UEFA Europa League group stage for the first time this season, the others being Espanyol, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Ferencváros, Olexandriya and fellow Austrian side LASK. They and Olexandriya are the only two teams already eliminated. The coaches • Paulo Fonseca was appointed as the new Roma head coach on 11 June 2019. He arrived in the Eternal City having won the Ukrainian league and cup double in each of his three seasons with Shakhtar Donetsk, where he had replaced the long-serving Mircea Lucescu in 2016. A central defender of modest repute, he paid his dues as a coach in his 3 AS Roma - Wolfsberger AC Thursday 12 December 2019 - 21.00CET (21.00 local time) Match press kit Stadio Olimpico, Rome native Portugal, first making his mark at Paços de Ferreira then joining Porto in 2013 before winning his first major trophy, the 2015/16 Portuguese Cup, with Braga. • On 20 November, Wolfsberg head coach Gerhard Struber took over at Barnsley, in the English Championship. He has been replaced on an interim basis by Mohamed Sahli, a 40-year-old Austrian of Tunisian descent who was previously Struber’s assistant. Sahli’s career has been spent predominantly as a youth coach, overseeing the development of up-and-coming talents at Salzburg and Sturm Graz before working as a joint head coach with the Austrian Under-19 and U16 selections. He arrived at Wolfsberg in the summer of 2019. 4 AS Roma - Wolfsberger AC Thursday 12 December 2019 - 21.00CET (21.00 local time) Match press kit Stadio Olimpico, Rome Team facts AS Roma Formed: 1927 Nickname: Giallorossi (Red and Yellows) UEFA club competition honours (runners-up in brackets) • European Cup: (1984) • UEFA Cup: (1991) Domestic honours (most recent triumph in brackets) League title: 3 (2001) Italian Cup: 9 (2008) Ten-year European record (UEFA Europa League unless indicated otherwise) 2018/19: UEFA Champions League round of 16 2017/18: UEFA Champions League semi-finals 2016/17: round of 16 (having transferred from UEFA Champions League play-offs) 2015/16: UEFA Champions League round of 16 2014/15: round of 16 (having transferred from UEFA Champions League group stage) 2013/14: did not participate in UEFA competition 2012/13: did not participate in UEFA competition 2011/12: play-offs 2010/11: UEFA Champions League round of 16 2009/10: round of 32 Records UEFA club competition • Biggest home win 7-0 twice, most recently v Gorica 28/09/00, UEFA Cup first round second leg • Biggest away win 1-7: Gent v Roma 06/08/09, UEFA Europa League third qualifying round second leg • Heaviest home defeat 1-7: Roma v Bayern München 21/10/14, UEFA Champions League group stage • Heaviest away defeat 7-1: Manchester United v Roma 10/04/07, UEFA Champions League quarter-finals second leg UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League • Biggest home win 7-0 twice, most recently v Gorica (see above) • Biggest away win 1-7: Gent v Roma (see above) • Heaviest home defeat 0-3: Roma v Fiorentina 19/03/15, round of 16 second leg • Heaviest away defeat 3-0: Karlsruhe v Roma 15/10/96, second round first leg Wolfsberger AC Formed: 1931 Nickname: WAC, Die Lavanttaler (People from valley where Wolfsberg is) UEFA club competition honours (runners-up in brackets) • None Domestic honours (most recent triumph in brackets) None 5 AS Roma - Wolfsberger AC Thursday 12 December 2019 - 21.00CET (21.00 local time) Match press kit Stadio Olimpico, Rome Ten-year European record (UEFA Europa League unless indicated otherwise) 2018/19: did not take part in UEFA competition 2017/18: did not take part in UEFA competition 2016/17: did not take part in UEFA competition 2015/16: third qualifying round 2014/15: did not take part in UEFA competition 2013/14: did not take part in UEFA competition 2012/13: did not take part in UEFA competition 2011/12: did not take part in UEFA competition 2010/11: did not take part in UEFA competition